39 plymouth project from tarp find to road in 100 days

There is tons of space behind that firewall. One of the biggest regrets I have on my '37 is that I settled for a 2" recessed firewall -- go for the deepest recess you feel comfortable with, you will still have plenty of room for your feet. Better to have plenty of room for the engine.

 

Great project. looks like you are on you way to a sweet ride! Taildraggers are the cats meow.

 

I fiddled around on the computer this morning waiting for my local NAPA to open. I need 4 bolts to mount my control arms. If I had them, it would be rolling on its own wheels today.

It gave me a little while to mock up some modifications I want to do to it. Nothing outlandish, just suttle and clean. Heres a look at the front as I see it...



I'm going to graft the nose piece to the hood and fill it in. Then mount the hood on a piano hinge so that I can use one side of the hood hold down handles and open it coffin style. then mold in a couple body lines and hopefully find a 40 Dodge front bumper. That part of the project is a 3 weeks away, right after the drivetrain install and mounting the body back on the frame and dealing with the steering/ column and firewall.

That leads me back to todays efforts. No bolts until monday so I turned to pulling the motor out of the Lemans. 2 hours to remove the fuel pump so that I could get to the motor mount bolt. Yet another reason why I'll never buy another GMC product again.. I hope to have the motor out tomorrow and dangling in the buzzy coupe.

My budget is so squeezy small for this build that a lot of the modifications and build itself has got to be done on the skinny, I've nicknamed it the "Depression Coupe."

Now drivetrain. No Hemi. No Stock flat 6... No 396, 350,327,283, 305 ,307, No Poly and No Nailhead. My Donor comes with a nice running Buick Fireball V6. Next year I'll gather together a Turbo for it or maybe just keep it as is... I guess we'll see then.

 

One more vote for no chop. Slam the suspension till it looks good but the porportions of the body are AOK as they are. Besides, unless you've done a round body chop you can't imagine the work getting everything to fit and flow. I'd hate to see that great body ruined by an unsucessful attempt at "improving" it. Just another opinion and you know how valuable those are.

Frank

 

I've chopped a 50 4 door Merc, 50 ford, a 53 chev belair, too many beetles and my A. I dont fear the challenge but your right, to make this one look right wouldnt be one of those " over the weekend" kind of jobs.

 

Agreed... no chop for now, skirts for sure, WWW and the set of Original 60's moon caps I bought off a 32 Roadster in B.C. The paint, we'll get to that down the road, I've got some plans there.

 

Oh its a happy thing seeing the motor / ****** sitting in the frame.

Tomorrow, I'll measure up for motor mounts and awaaaay we go!

 

You work fast! No messing about.
Cool project - and those lights will look very good.

 

Keep up the good work Lono! Greetings from Finland.

 

'Glad to see you're not choppin the car. The photo-shop mock-up is crazy. I kept the flat 6 - '55 Dodge 230, punched .060, Edgy cam, Fenton aluminum head, 2 Carters on an Edmunds intake, Langdon headers with duals/Smithys. I just picked up a Mallory dizzy which will go in shortly. Interesting choice of Buick power, it's different and reliable.

 

Picked up the flathead soc Cap bolts to mount the steering arms. went to ***emble the disks and one caliper is hooped. that's no biggy, but when I went to get nuts for the wheel... holy ****, what a gong show. 3 trips to NAPA and on the third trip I took the disk to show the guy that yes, its a reverse thread, I'm not blind. So tommorrow I should have the caliper and nuts, then i can drop the car on its own wheels.
I't got a bit of a reverse rake ( tail dragger) right now but once I can seat the springs right and bounce up and down on them a little then I can start shaving the coils.

Ordered up the motor mounts from speedway, I'm guessing 10 days for their delivery.It will give me time to work out the steering.

 

Been waiting around this morning for the calipre and nuts so took the time to fiddle on the 'puter. This is how I see her being done in the end....

 

DAY 21:
At last. 4 trips to NAPA and Dorco for lug nuts, twice with the disk in hand and the calipre installed, she's standing on her own.



...and now back in the shop to play with steering.

 

Turned to stripping the donor car.
Its yield so far has been
motor/ ******
driveshaft
steering column, shift linkage
power brake booster/ master cylinder
Gas pedal and linkage
brake pedal and hardware
proportioning valve

nice haul for $200.00

Picked up a great mopar steering box from a great hot rodder here on the hamb... thanks Brent.

 

What are you using for a steering column? Donor car? Nice choice on the wheel covers, I'm using a set on my 40 dodge. There was a story on a blue buick in one of the mags that had a set of those on it but with a small bullet cone in the center. They looked really cool. later shawn

 

Yep donor car... a goose neck Lokar is twice what I paid for the whole car. This is a true thin dime build.

 

Lono, I really like your concept of this biuld. My son and I have just finish a like coupe (38 chrysler). We started it a year ago and then got side tracked, got back on it ~4 months ago to get it ready for the NSRA at Springfield Mo. last weekend. Made it with one week to spare. We did a 69 camaro clip, Lt1/4l60e, ford 8.8 rear. We painted it hot rod black with lime green steeles with baby moons and rings. I have no clue how to post pix. I can have my son do it when he gets in, if you would like to see them. I just don't want to high jack your thread.

 

No worries... would love to see it.

 

for more pics, follow the links

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11681&id=1028130021&l=bdf264e783
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22808&id=1028130021&l=de550271f2

 

Lot's of progress,i'm jealous,looking good!Keep it up!

 

Really nice work! I love the colour combination, it's pretty original. So many people fear "green" as an accent colour but it works.

I know where a 39 Chrysler rumble seat coupe is....hummmmmmm

 

Here she is tonight after a long day cutting, welding and putting back together.

The front has dropped 3 inches total. The rear 5 inches total.

The final ride height will vary based on the tires. The cool thing today.... THE FENDER SKIRTS ARRIVED!!!!

 

I've got one side of the back trim and both door trim pieces if you need them. I hade a 39 plymouth coupe like yours 25 years ago. I sold it to a cousin in Tx. He still has not finished it. I had put in all NOS frontend pieces in it, and he cut the hole frontend off and clipped it. Are you going to leave in the wing windows or make it one piece? I would like to see that 38 with a rumble seat, that would be cool. They made less than 1k of the chrysler coupes that year, I'm sure very few had the rumble seat.

 

I'm good for Chrome, thank you for the offer. I'm sticking with the wing windows fo this year, over winter I may take them out but I am kinda fond of them.

 

I really respect the fact that you utilized a cheap running donor car for a lot of the parts that would be considered budget blowers...

The drivetrain in my '60 F-100 remains mechanically untouched (other than intake/carb) from it's origins as a $300 Cadillac driver...

You were totally correct about the skirts hiding the forward placement of the rear axle c/l. They really make the profile look sharp! I look forward to checking in on this build. A lot of smart, well figured progress towards your goal...

Thanks for sharing the progress!

Todd

 

NICE!!! Is that the stock roof height in the last pic with the skirts? That looks great just like that. later shawn

 

No chop... ever.

Thanks Todd for the cudos!

 

started looking at the firewall today and thought I'd better line up the steering first to get a feel for what I've got ahead. Things suddenly turned to the speedo.
There wasnt much left of the dash. Gave me a chance to do something different... Kiazer speedo cluster...
bought on line for $35.00 including shipping. It will leave me plenty of room to get some funky pin stipe work done over a smooth dash.

Now I just need to modify it to fit. Today work just didnt work out right.

 

the seat is tilted backward, not bolted in so it makes it look quite cramped but theres plenty o room for Lono thunder thighs, but your right, I need to rework it tomoorw.. raise it up a couple inches.